Group trying to fix world with free pie comes to Houston

By Carol Christian |
July 10, 2013
| Updated: July 10, 2013 3:40pm

Pie It Forward, a project to give away pie just to be nice, is coming today to Discovery Green.

According to the group's blog, the free pie will appear near the corner of Crawford and McKinney at 7 p.m.

We found the traveling pie people Wednesday afternoon at a Champions-area home whose owner offered them the use of her kitchen.

"We're finishing up our 10th pie at our host house and getting ready for our event," said Sarah Fertig, the 28-year-old Michigan resident who's the group's chief baker and describes herself as "on a mission to change the world with the power of pie."

She's traveling with her boyfriend and baking assistant, Chris Kovac, 32, also of Michigan.

"We're just a couple of regular people who got tired of complaining about the state of the world and decided to do something about it," Fertig states on the blog. "We're not affiliated with any religious organization or political party, because we believe being kind to each other and sharing should transcend groups and labels. We'll work with anyone and we'll share pie with anyone."

Helping out is baking assistant Scott Graves, 30, of Florida and Arkansas.

Their host, Susan, said she saw their announcement on the website Reddit and wanted to help out.

"I'm about as conservative, Bible-thumping and gun-toting as you can get," said Susan, who's married to an executive. "I was compelled to contact them, I want to make sure they left Texas with a good experience."

Discovery Green staffers, who hadn't heard about the planned pie give-away before a Chronicle inquiry, said it isn't a sanctioned park event.

Their Discovery Green appearance will mark their 20th event since leaving Michigan March 3.

They've traveled about 9,800 miles and given away 125 pies.

In their July 7 blog post, the pie makers said the prior week in Texas had been the hardest of the trip, with the Dallas event canceled due to lack of a host home.

Things appear to have taken a cheerier turn, with this evening's invitation to share pie at Discovery Green:

"Please bring a dish to pass if you are able. Donations of sugar, flour, forks, paper plates, and plain old cash are always appreciated! See you there!"